updated 09:10 am EDT, Fri September 14, 2012

Claims future without docking, data cables

Intel has demonstrated wireless docking using WiGig at the Intel Developers Forum. Also known as 802.11ad, the technology uses wireless speeds of up to 7Gbps to connect a monitor and various peripherals to a computer without the need for wires. Using the 60GHz band, it has a throughput multiple times that of 802.11ac and is backwards compatible with all current standards.

Chairman of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, Ali Sadri, demonstrated the power of WiGig by connecting an Ultrabook to an external hard drive and a pair of monitors, and then proceeding to stream a video stored on the drive. At its peak, the demonstration hit a bandwidth of 3.5Gbit, providing a significant amount of headroom for other connections to take place at the same time.

The WGA consortium envisages future devices having WiGig built-in, and doing away with docks, hubs, and data cables. It hopes the first WiGig devices will head to retail by the end of next year.